Illegal logging 'threatens bio-diverse forest'

Environmental groups are warning that an Indonesian rainforest with a record number of plant species could be destroyed within four years, if bans on logging are not enforced.

The groups say the Tesso Nilo tropical forest on the island of Sumatra is just one of a number of rainforests under threat of destruction from illegal logging.

Studies estimate an area the size of Belgium is deforested in Indonesia every year.

Almost three-quarters of the logging is unlawful.

The reports say the pulp industry has expanded too quickly to be able to satisfy its pledges to use only wood from sustainable plantations by the year 2008.

The UK-based group, Friends of the Earth, is calling for consumers to stop buying products made by a major Indonesian pulp manufacturer, Asia Pacific Resource Holdings Limited, which it accuses of illegal logging.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service